Plastic bags still in some grocers’ plans

Local Whole Foods stores will do away with plastic grocery bags by March 1, but other local grocery chains will continue to offer plastic bags for the time being.

Steve Adams

‘Paper or plastic?” will remain an option for shoppers at most local grocery stores for now. Despite Whole Foods Market’s plan to eliminate all plastic bags at its checkout lines as soon as Saturday, other grocery chains say they have no immediate plans to do away with plastic.

Whole Foods of Austin, Texas, revealed in January that it would remove disposable plastic bags from its 270 stores by Earth Day on April 22 in a nod toward environmentalists’ concerns about the nonbiodegradable items. San Francisco became the first major city to ban plastic grocery bags in 2007, and officials in other cities, including Boston, have debated similar bans.

Whole Foods also has encouraged shoppers to bring their own bags on shopping trips by offering refunds of as much as 10 cents per bag.

Whole Foods estimates its new policy will keep 100 million plastic bags out of the waste stream by year’s end.

In January, Whole Foods stores began reducing their stocks of plastic bags and notifying customers about the impending changeover.

All stores in the Boston area will go plastic bag-free by Saturday, said Christina Barber, marketing team leader for Whole Foods’ Hingham store. Signs publicizing the “Countdown to Zero Plastic” are prominently displayed in stores.

“Now that we’ve got a date, it’s made it more real for people, and the feedback has been really positive,” Barber said.

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